Commentary for Parah 7:6

המוליך את החבל בידו לדרכו (if one carries the rope – borrowed for drawing water) in his hand to restore it to the owner – on his way to perform the rite – and gave it to him) – after he had filled the bucket with a rope, he returned the rope to its owners, on his way, that it was not necessary to make a circuit/go out of his way or to lengthen his path, but rather, according to his walking , he found the owner of the rope and returned to him what was his, this is not labor (i.e., intermediate act of work) and the filling is kosher/fit/acceptable.

One who carries the rope in his hand, If in his usual manner, the mixture is valid; But if not in his usual manner, it is invalid. If after filling the water into a jar that was hanging from a rope he returned in his usual way and didn't go out of the way to return the rope somewhere else, the mixture remains valid. But if he went out of his way to carry the rope somewhere else, the mixture is invalid because this is considered work.

שלא לדרכו – that he went out of his way in order to return the rope, it is work/labor and the drawing [of water] is invalid.

The question was sent on to Yavneh on three festivals and on the third festival, it was ruled that the mixture was valid, as a temporary measure. The question about walking the rope out of its way and was asked (according to the Tosefta by pilgrims from Asia Minor) for three consecutive festivals in the yeshiva in Yavneh and finally on the third festival they gave an answer. The answer was that as a temporary measure they will validate cases in which this was done in the past, but in the future if one carries the rope out of its way, it will invalidate the water. As an aside, this mishnah is, according to some scholars (notably Gedaliah Alon), evidence that there was a center of rabbinic learning in Yavneh before the destruction of the Temple. Yavneh's ascent as a famous and legendary rabbinic academy seems to have largely occurred after the destruction (this was where R. Yohanan ben Zakkai went after the destruction) but it seems that there were some sages there even before the destruction and that some Jews turned to those sages with questions on their way to the Temple in Jerusalem. However, beyond these scant details, there is little we really know.

זה הלך – meaning to say, that on this matter, one Sage went to ask from the Sages of Yavneh, the y are the Great Sanhedrin that were exiled there.

הוראת שעה(a special dispensation) – it was a special case of an emergency. But if I was not this, it is not [allowed].